- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates serving a Termination Notice to Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd should the company choose to exercise the rebasing option in the franchise agreement.
Answer
Whether rebasing proposals are submitted after 1 April 2022 is a matter for Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd to consider and decide upon. Any proposals received in due course would be carefully considered. We can express no view on the possible outcome of any rebasing process.
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of the costs of combining the Caledonian Sleeper franchise with the ScotRail franchise so that they are managed together by the Operator of Last Resort.
Answer
As there are no current plans to deploy Operator of Last Resort arrangements for the Caledonian Sleeper Franchise, spending public money on analysing the costs of doing so would not represent good value.
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of whether returning the operation of the Caledonian Sleeper franchise to the terms of the original franchise agreement after 31 March 2022, once the current Emergency Measures Agreement expires, could lead to a default on payment or termination of the contract.
Answer
The current Emergency Measures Agreement has been extended until the 28 February 2022. A prior information notice (a technical measure that stems from the relevant procurement regulation) was issued in February 2021 to preserve the Scottish Government’s ability to award a temporary measures agreement from March 2022 should it be necessary at that stage to continue emergency measures type support.
In advance of the expiry of the current Emergency Measures Agreement, the Scottish Government will consider the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of the Sleeper franchise and review the need for any temporary measures agreement.
- Asked by: Richard Leonard, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 6 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it anticipates extending the Caledonian Sleeper franchise Emergency Measures Agreement beyond 31 March 2022 and, if so, what does it anticipate would be the duration of any extension.
Answer
The Emergency Measures Agreement, which temporarily varied the terms of the franchise agreement with Serco Caledonian Sleepers Ltd, will expire on 28 February 2022.
A prior information notice (a technical measure that stems from the relevant procurement regulation) was issued in February 2021 to preserve the Scottish Government’s ability to award a temporary measures agreement from March 2022 should it be necessary at that stage to continue emergency measures type support. As the scale and pace of recovery from the impact of the pandemic remains uncertain, the need for such an award, and the duration of any award, is being kept under review.
- Asked by: Oliver Mundell, MSP for Dumfriesshire, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kate Forbes on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will make commit to passing on in full any Barnett consequentials arising from the UK Government’s sector-specific funding announcements in response to COVID-19 to the relevant sector.
Answer
All Covid-19 related consequentials will be fully committed to funding the response in Scotland. These consequentials are not ring fenced and are allocated based on need.
- Asked by: Maurice Golden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Lorna Slater on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity was aware that Circularity Scotland reportedly issued procurement documentation for a deposit return system with a launch date of summer 2023, prior to her statement to the Parliament on 14 December 2021.
Answer
In line with the principle of producer responsibility, Circularity Scotland Ltd (CSL) is a private company, established by industry to lead on delivery of Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) as scheme administrator. As an independent, industry-led organisation, CSL’s procurement decisions are not a matter for the Scottish Ministers.
Producers of in-scope drinks are responsible for having their scheme packaging collected from return points free of charge from the full implementation date for DRS, either directly or through a scheme administrator. Industry is therefore liable for delivery of DRS by the full implementation date whether or not a scheme administrator is in place by that date. Until and unless amended by the Deposit and Return Scheme for Scotland Amendment Regulations 2022, that date is set in regulations as 1 July 2022.
- Asked by: Jeremy Balfour, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will confirm if personal data, including ethnicity, which is taken when a COVID-19 vaccine is administered, is retained securely and is only used by NHS Scotland for the purpose for which it was obtained.
Answer
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of hospitality businesses are using the (a) Check-in Scotland and (b) Test and Protect systems, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
It is not currently possible to identify the number of hospitality businesses nor the proportion of hospitality businesses that use the Check-in Scotland service. Whilst the collecting of customers contact details is a legal requirement, use of the Check-in Scotland service is entirely voluntary and can be used by many different types of business and venues, not just in hospitality. It is also possible to register different parts of a single venue so that they have different check-in locations (e.g. a bar with a separate address in a cinema complex could have a different check-in code to the cinema itself) and a single business may register multiple venues meaning that total figure does not equate to the number of businesses that may be using the service. Further details can be found at www.checkin.scot .
Other than the Check-in Scotland service, hospitality businesses may also use the NHS Scotland Covid Check app to verify a customers Covid Status. No personally identifiable or venue information is collected by the Covid Check App so it is it not possible to identify the number of businesses using the Covid Check app. Further details can be found at www.covidcheck.scot.
No businesses have access to any other Test & Protect systems.
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the need for a public awareness campaign for blood cancer.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s commitment to the early diagnosis of cancer is reflected in the £44m Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme. The NHS Recovery Plan – published August 2021 – commits an additional £20m for the DCE Programme, to provide greater public awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer and supporting the development of optimal cancer pathways to improve earlier diagnosis rates. Research will be undertaken in the coming months to better understand the possible barriers and levers to early diagnosis that any new DCE campaigns should focus on.
An overarching DCE social marketing campaign 'Survivors' was previously developed in close consultation with the Scottish Cancer Coalition in 2018. The campaign aimed to reduce fear around cancer and empower people to take early action, be it visiting their GP practice or attending screening when invited. To coincide with the campaign, a symptom-checker tool was developed on DCE’s website (getcheckedearly.org) to raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of cancer, including blood cancer.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Patrick Harvie on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) assessment and (b) review of EPC rating regulations it will undertake to assess their suitability to deliver outcomes.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s Heat in Buildings Strategy sets out our intention to reform Energy Performance Certificates to ensure they are a suitable basis for future Energy Efficiency Regulations. In Summer 2021 we consulted on the first step of our proposed EPC reforms which focused on removing the cost element and instead using energy consumption as the headline metric. We are currently analysing feedback from this consultation and will consult on wider proposals for Energy Efficiency Regulations in Summer 2022. We are also considering what other changes are needed to EPCs to provide a robust basis for Energy Efficiency Regulations, and whether any changes are required to the 2008 regulations that established EPCs.